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Devil’s on the Loose: A Review of Forrest Hylton’s Evil Hour in Colombia
EVIL HOUR IN COLOMBIA by Forrest HyltonBUY THIS BOOK There was a period in the 1990s when I honestly thought that Colombia would become Washington’s next Vietnam. Instead, it turns out that the counterinsurgency assisted financially and militarily by Washington is more like the so-called low-intensity conflicts waged by Washington and its clients in Central […]
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The Privatization of God
Custom-made for the Consumer In the 17th century, Blaise Pascal, a genius of mathematics, wrote that men never do evil with greater pleasure than when they do it with religious conviction. This idea — from a deeply religious man — has taken a variety of different forms since. During the last century, the greatest crimes […]
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Venezuela and South Africa: Redistributive Policies vs. Neo-liberal Economic Policies
Traveling to both Venezuela and South Africa this past summer, through my work as an academic sociologist, I was able to observe firsthand two radically different approaches to “third world” development: a “redistributive approach” in Venezuela, and a set of basically neo-liberal economic policies in South Africa. Although this was not a consciously designed research […]
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It’s Not Race or Class — It’s Race and Class: An Interview with Roderick Bush
WE ARE NOT WHAT WE SEEM: Black Nationalism and Class Struggle in the American Century by Roderick D. BushBUY THIS BOOK Roderick Bush is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at St. John’s University in New York. He is the author of We Are Not What We Seem: Black Nationalism and Class Struggle in […]
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Myths as Collective Metaphors [Mitos como metáforas colectivas]
Y el mito y la leyenda son en el fondo metáforas colectivas, o sea, maneras de expresión que la historia encuentra para revelarse a pesar del silencio obligatorio, y a pesar de la obligatoria mentira. El mito, por citarte un ejemplo, el mito de Túpac Amaru . . . verdad . . . es de […]
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Class Struggle and Socialist Revolution in the Philippines: Understanding the Crisis of U.S. Hegemony, Arroyo State Terrorism, and Neoliberal Globalization
Prodded by Amnesty International (AI), the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Asian Human Rights Commission, Reporters Without Borders, and other international organizations, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently cobbled a group to look into the allegations of massive human rights violations — over 729 victims of extrajudicial killings, and 180 involuntary “disappearances,” by the latest count — during her […]
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One of the Goals Is to Open Offices in Various Countries of the World: CIM Is Determined Not to Repeat Errors of the Socialism of the 20th Century [Una de las metas es abrir sedes en varios países del mundo Instan a no repetir errores del socialismo del siglo XX]
Michael Lebowitz, Martha Harnecker y Luis Bonilla. Credito: MIGUEL ACURERO Caracas. A pesar de tener activo cinco meses, ayer viernes fue presentado oficialmente el Centro Internacional Miranda (CMI), que tendrá como objetivo determinar los aspectos ideológicos que enmarcarán el proceso de transformación del país hacia el modo del socialismo del siglo XXI, con la participación […]
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Mexico at the Edge:Toward a Declaration of Dual Power
Mexico stands at the brink of a social upheaval of major proportions after the Electoral Tribunal threw out most challenges by presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, leading him to call for the creation of a new government. (See “Election Decision Favors Felipe Calderon of the Pan.”) In the face of what he calls a […]
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Preface to the Turkish Edition of Naming the System
I am honored to write this preface to the Turkish edition of my book, Naming the System: Inequality and Work in the Global Economy. I thank Neset Kutlug and everyone else who helped bring this edition to fruition. I wrote the book with an international audience in mind, so it is gratifying to see […]
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Despite Settlement with BHP Billiton, Miners Will Continue Campaigning for Chilean Copper [Pese a arreglo con BHP Billiton, seguirán campaña pro cobre chileno]
Mineros de Escondida harán plebiscito para medir apoyo a renacionalización Los patos negros de la mina de cobre La Escondida, quienes recién acaban de superar una difícil huelga de 25 días, planean efectuar en Antofagasta un plebiscito ciudadano que mida el apoyo para iniciar el debate sobre la conveniencia de una renacionalización del cobre. […]
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Appraising the Bamako Appeal: A Contribution to the Debate
1. Introduction This commentary is offered as a contribution to the ongoing debate on the Bamako Appeal. On the 18th of January, on the day preceding the start of the Polycentric World Social Forum in Bamako, Mali, a conference was held in the same capital, commemorating the holding of the Bandung Conference 50 years back. […]
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Anti-Arab Racism, Islam, and the Left
Racism against Arabs and Muslims long preceded the 9-11 terrorist attacks and has much of its roots in Western imperialism in the Middle East, especially Israel’s colonization of Palestine. Yet, the escalation that we witness today can be traced to the war on terror launched after 9-11 by Bush and his neoconservative ideologues with the […]
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Interview with Paul LeBlanc
Paul LeBlanc Paul LeBlanc is what I have called an “organic intellectual,” a scholar and activist who has risen directly out of the working class. Paul is the author of many books, including A Short History of the U.S. Working Class (Humanity Books, 1999) and Black Liberation and the American Dream (Humanity Books 2003), […]
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Ten Questions for Movement Building
For five weeks in the late spring of 2006, we toured the eastern half of the United States to promote two books — Letters From Young Activists: Today’s Rebels Speak Out (Nation Books, 2005) and Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity (AK Press, 2006) — and to get at […]
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Nepal — July 2006
Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of Monthly Review. Its July-August 2006 issue features the following editorial on the current situation in Nepal. — ED. In the year since the last monsoon, nothing has held out more hope for humanity than events in Nepal. Last summer Nepal […]
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What Do the Iranians Want?
The priority of the Iranian people, according to the Zogby poll released on 13 July 2006,1 is economy: 41% say economy should be Iran’s top priority, a far larger proportion than those who regard nuclear capability (27%) or freedom (23%) as the most important. The correct priority if you ask me, as the Supreme Leader […]
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When Will the AFL-CIO Leadership Quit Blaming the Chinese Government for Multinational Corporate Decisions, US Government Policies, and US Labor Leaders’ Inept Reponses?
The AFL-CIO has just formally petitioned the Bush Administration to “take immediate action to stop exploitation by the Chinese government and multinational corporations of workers in China, who are paid as little as 15 cents per hour” (AFL-CIO, “AFL-CIO Files Workers’ Rights Case Against China ,” Press Release, June 8, 2006). It appears that the […]
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When the Union Is the Boss
Editor’s Introduction It’s no secret that there exists (1) a high turnover rate among entry-level organizers, many of whom are (2) young college graduates, rather than people recruited out of the communities that are organizing targets — the interrelated problems that Kevin Funk’s essay below illustrates. Daisy Rooks’ qualitative study (based on interviews with […]
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Reflections on the June 9-10, 2006 Hong Kong Conference: “The Fortieth Anniversary: Rethinking the Genealogy and Legacy of the Cultural Revolution”
Flying into Hong Kong with my wife, Amy Demarest, early in the morning of June 8, 2006 and jetlagged, I wasn’t sure I’d be up to the next two days of a fully packed conference on the Cultural Revolution. The conference was sponsored by the China Study Group, Monthly Review, and the Contemporary China […]
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On Neoliberalism: An Interview with David Harvey
A BRIEF HISTORY OF NEOLIBERALISM by David HarveyBUY THIS BOOK Neoliberalism has left an indelible, smoldering mark on our world for the last thirty years. Eminent Marxist geographer David Harvey, author of A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford, 2005), spoke earlier this year to Sasha Lilley, of the radical radio program Against the Grain, about […]